Comparative ecology of house sparrow (passer domesticus) and Eurasian tree sparrow (passer montanus) in Assam University, Silchar campus
Student name: Ms Pallabi Dey
Guide: Dr Prateek Sharma
Year of completion: 2013
Host Organisation: Assam University, Silchar
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Hilloljyoti Singha
Abstract: House sparrow and Tree sparrows are two congeneric species with similar habits and
habitats. I carried out a comparative study of both the species in terms of population estimation,
activity budget and parental investments in Assam University, Silchar to see if resource
partitioning occurred between them. I found that the population size and the density of House
sparrows were larger. Among House sparrows the males were found to be more in number.
While House sparrows were seen almost uniformly along my study trail, Tree sparrows were
confined mainly to the last 450 m of the trail. The nests of these species also were distributed
accordingly. House sparrows showed a preference towards uncovered bulb-box in the light posts
as nest sites while Tree sparrows preferred building crevices. The various activities were also
performed in different durations in different time of day by House sparrows and Tree sparrows.
While the former carried out foraging mainly in the morning, the latter divided its time between
morning and afternoon. Parental investment was found more in House sparrows than in Tree
sparrows in terms of the duration as well as the frequencies of different behaviours. Among
House sparrows, male contributed more time to nest guarding than the female. These showed
certain niche differentiations developed in space, time and behaviour between House sparrow
and Tree sparrows to reduce competition and better resource allocation.
Key words House sparrow, Tree sparrow, Population estimation, Activity budget, Parental
investment, Assam University
